The president of the United States, Donald Trump, will receive on Monday at the White House to his Salvadoran counterpart, Nayib Bukele, who has folded himself to the demands of the Republican to host deportened migrants.
Bukele has become Trump’s main ally in Central America after locking more than 250 migrants, the vast majority Venezuelans, expelled by Washington last month.
Human rights organizations denounce that deportees are victims of “forced disappearance and arbitrary detention.”
This collaboration, however, did not free El Salvador from the 10% global tariff imposed by the Republican president last week.
“Without a doubt,” this tariff can cause “exports” of the Central American country to “warn the economist César Villalona.
Trade
The United States is the main destination of Salvadoran exports. Of the almost 6,500 million dollars in products that left the country in 2024, 2 thousand 134 million went to US territory, mainly clothing, electric capacitors, sugar and coffee, according to the Central Bank of El Salvador.
The commercial deficit of the Central American country with the main world economy was 2,289 million dollars, a quarter of the total of El Salvador. The United States mainly exported oil and gasoline, minerals, medicines and vehicles
“Commerce needs to take off, be fluid, not to affect it,” Villalona told AFP.
For this reason, the president of the Salvadoran Association of Industrialists, Jorge Arriaza, hopes Bukele’s visit to the White House to provide “a little more clarity” about what will happen to tariffs for the country.
Security
White House spokeswoman, Karoline Leavitt, said Trump and Bukele “will talk about the collaboration of El Salvador” in immigration matters.
Bukele agreed to imprison in the CECOT megaprision, on Salvadoran soil, more than 250 migrants, the vast majority Venezuelans, expelled by the United States last month.
The Trump administration said without evidence that the first expelled to El Salvador, a group of more than 200 Venezuelans, were members of the Criminal Band of Aragua. The relatives of some of the deportees deny those accusations.
The White House made that first deportation under a law of foreign enemies dating from 1798 and Trump got rid of the Salvadoran president for receiving them.
“Thank you, President Bukele, from El Salvador, for taking you to the criminals,” the Republican then published on his social truth platform.
The political scientist Napoleon Campos regrets that the encounter between Bukele and Trump “simplifies” the “hard security hand”.
“There are other issues that could be touched, such as investments, commerce, but everything is reduced to talking about a prison. It seems that El Salvador does not give more with the United States,” said Campos.
At the end of March, the US Secretary of Internal Security, Kristi Noem, visited the CECOT, with capacity for 40,000 inmates, symbol of the anti -Pandillas fight of the Salvadoran president.
In this prison a Salvadoran deported in March “by mistake” is imprisoned. The American Supreme Court ordered this week to the Trump government “to facilitate” the return of Kilmar Abrego García, who is married to an American.
Migration
The 2.5 million Salvadorans living in the United States are a support for the economy of the Central American country for the remittances they send to their country of origin.
El Salvador received 8,480 million dollars in family remittances in 2024, 23% of the country’s GDP.
In January and February, remittances grew 14.2% in relation to the same months of 2024, due to the fear of deportations of migrants, according to economists.
Under the government of Democrat Joe Biden, the United States deported 14,195 Salvadorans in 2024, 2,592 more than in 2023, according to the International Organization for Migration (IIM).
That is why analysts believe that Bukele should seek Trump to soften the hard hand policy with Salvadoran migrants.
“The priority for him must be the immigration situation of Salvadorans in the United States,” Carlos Carcach told AFP.